CEO of the Year,
California
OriginClear is a leading provider of water treatment solutions and the
developer of a breakthrough water clean up technology serving the rapidly
growing $500 billion world market. CEO Riggs Eckelberry provides us with a
unique overview of this market and how his firm fits into it.

OriginClear is a technology company that went
public in 2008 to develop a breakthrough technology
through licensing and joint ventures.
We began as OriginOil with a mission to help
commercialize algae, “the original oil”, and we
continue to provide one of the strongest primarily
non-chemical platforms for harvesting of algae today.
Then in 2009 we found that our ability to get
microscopic particles out of water could also
be put to work in the oil fields, and we began to
demonstrate our ability to clean up oil and gas
wastewater. Therefore in 2014 we renamed ourselves
as OriginClear and began to develop in industrial and
agricultural wastewater treatment.
In 2015, with our technology proven and getting
into revenue, we began to work on the next stage,
acquiring companies in the water treatment
business. Currently many industrial water users are
outsourcing their treatment needs and there is an
opportunity to acquire those many small companies.
Today, our technology is a breakthrough way to clarify
water and neutralize certain hazardous chemicals
in it, and we license our technology as well as
participating in joint ventures.
Within the company my role is as the chief
communicator. As such it is my responsibility to get
across the benefits and potential of what we do, and
also our concrete progress in doing so. I’ve been able to
find and support strong leaders of our two major groups:
technology and M&A. As a result, I am able to focus on
strategy and corporate development, while ensuring that
we have the financial means to get our job done.

The water treatment industry, despite being highly
technologically driven, is still heavily populated by old
fashioned companies. As such the adoption of new
water treatment technology in developed countries is
very conservative and slow.
However, we have found very high enthusiasm in
the Chinese market. There is high awareness of the
extent of the problem in mainland China and the
government has begun mandating business owners
to effectively and efficiently deal with pollution issues.
To capitalize on this readiness, we created
OriginClear Hong Kong (OCHK), our wholly-owned
master licensee for China, which is also our business
hub for the rest of Asia-Pacific. Our strategy in China
is to establish a number of joint ventures there in
which OCHK will take a share.
OCHK managing director, Jean-Louis “JL” Kindler,
who is also President of the OriginClear Technologies
group, and Nicholas Eckelberry, co-founder of
OriginClear, have worked for several months to prove
the technology in lab demonstrations and develop
relationships. Our joint venture with Mr. Xu is the
direct result of those efforts.
Mr. Xu pledged $1mn for the right to a joint venture
which will be responsible for sales of systems in
China, and a manufacturing joint venture which will
build all standalone systems for the People’s Republic
of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) and
elsewhere, while allowing other licensees to continue
to build our technology into their systems. It’s the
best of both worlds: sales coverage in China, and a
high-quality manufacturing operation that will set the
standard for implementation of our technology.
Globally, this means that our licensees and partners
worldwide will have the chance to purchase ISOreference equipment at the most competitive price.
Our technology integrates into existing systems,
creating a win-win for all concerned.
Looking to the future we plan to become a major
player in the outsourced water treatment business
in North America. Our vision is for The OriginClear
Group™ to become a major U.S. player in the water
solutions provider business over the next five years.
In order to achieve this we plan to acquire other
firms working in the industry, as well as establish our
technology as a de facto standard in first-stage water
clarification.